Welcome to another edition of The ROHbot Report – the only article you need for all the Ring of Honor news you have to know. In 2022, owner of All Elite Wrestling Tony Khan made a surprising announcement regarding the purchase of Ring of Honor; ending ROH’s eleven-year status under the Sinclair Broadcast Group umbrella where the company both flourished and faltered.

Sadly for ROH fans, the road to some type of stability with the product was unclear and downright rocky with three pay-per-views occurring in 2022 being the only examples of ROH events. It wasn’t until February 2023 that weekly Ring of Honor programming began filming out of Universal Studios in Florida. While the taping schedule and locations have changed dramatically since those initial episodes, the weekly format remains behind the pay-wall that is ROH’s subscription service, HonorClub.

Now, six months since the first episode of ROH on HonorClub aired, I want to look at the peaks and valleys of Ring of Honor since that debuting program aired in this six-month evaluation of ROH.

(Note: Everything covered in this evaluation ranges from the dates of March 2, 2023 when the first episode on HonorClub aired to September 2, 2023)

Champions and Title Changes

ROH World Championship

Current Champion: Claudio Castagnoli (Champion since December 10, 2022)

Defenses on ROH Programming: 5

ROH Women’s World Championship

Current Champion: Athena (Champion since December 10, 2022)

Defenses on ROH Programming: 11

ROH World Television Championship

Current Champion: Samoa Joe (Champion since April 13, 2022)

Defenses on ROH Programming: 8

ROH Pure Championship

Current Champion: Katsuyori Shibata (Champion since March 31, 2023)

Former Champion(s): Wheeler Yuta (won on December 10, 2022 from Daniel Garcia; defeated by Katsuyori Shibata on March 31, 2023)

Defenses on ROH Programming: 4

ROH World Tag Team Championship

Current Champions: Better Than You Bay Bay (Adam Cole & MJF) (Champions since August 27, 2023)

Former Champions: Aussie Open (Kyle Fletcher & Mark Davis) (won on July 21, 2023 from The Lucha Brothers; defeated by Better Than You Bay Bay on August 27, 2023)

– The Lucha Brothers (Penta El Zero Miedo & Rey Fenix) (won the vacated championship on March 31, 2023; defeated by Aussie Open on July 21, 2023)

Defenses on ROH Programming: 0

ROH World Six-Man Championship

Current Champions: The Mogul Embassy (Brian Cage, Toa Liona & Bishop Kaun) (Champions since December 10, 2022)

Defenses on ROH Programming: 8

Positives

“The Fallen Goddess’s” Reign

Ring of Honor’s flirtation with a Women’s Division began near the company’s inception with future international stars and World champions like Mickie “Alexis Laree” James, Sumie Sakai, and Allison Danger getting a small spotlight in the super indie promotion. Thanks to relationships with other promotions, primarily SHIMMER, ROH brought in female talent for showcases that usually amounted into rare appearances in matches barely given much time as they would in their home promotions. ROH finally got its act together in 2018 with a tournament to crown ROH’s first Women of Honor champion (an honor that went to Sumie Sakai upon winning a sixteen competitor tournament).

The Women of Honor Championship was eventually deactivated due to circumstances outside of the ring, but a Women’s Division wasn’t abandoned. When promotions were struggling to make must-see programming during the Covid-19 pandemic, Ring of Honor embraced its roots by presenting pro wrestling as a sport while offering talent hoping to make their names or restore their former glory the chance to do so with the then-newly minted ROH Women’s World Championship. Another tournament would crown the first titleholder (in this case, the future “Roxanne Perez” Rok-C) and it seemed ROH management learned from what went wrong just a couple of years prior with their previous implementation of a Women’s Division. Then Sinclair Broadcast Group put ROH on hiatus and Rok-C signed with WWE.

Thankfully, Tony Khan didn’t abandon the Women’s Championship and even reached out to Impact Wrestling to fix a controversy as Deonna Purrazzo won the title outside of ROH and Mercedes Martinez was crowned the interim champion; leading to a unification bout that Martinez won. Mercedes’ reign, while good, didn’t get the momentum it deserved as ROH had no dedicated programming block; forced to use AEW’s Youtube shows – “AEW Dark” and “AEW Dark Elevation” – to build up matches including Athena challenging for Mercedes’ title at “Final Battle” last year.

Before the match was made official, Athena started showing off a more aggressive and ruthless attitude during and after her matches. That same change in Athena helped “The Fallen Goddess” dethrone Martinez at ROH’s biggest event of the year. From the moment “ROH on HonorClub” aired, Athena became not only a highlight as an in-ring competitor, but also a personality.

Athena’s almost Mad Hatter-like charisma began to endear her to fans as she did the most dishonorable things including using her title belt as a weapon to add insulting injury to an opponent’s failed attempt at either defeating her or surviving a Proving Ground match. Situations like causing nervousness in backstage interviewer Lexy Nair every time they stand side-by-side, demanding ROH commentators Ian Riccaboni & Caprice Coleman to make up raps for her, and dubbing her fans “Minions” including fellow wrestler Billie Starkz allowed Athena’s star to shine brighter than ever.

But for all of her personality intricacies, the champ’s in-ring talents can’t be denied. Two fantastic matches with Willow Nightingale during the evaluation period including a main event spot during ROH’s most recent pay-per-view, “Death Before Dishonor” (a historic moment as it was not only the first time two women headlined a ROH event, but also two black women), a crazy Street Fight against Kiera Hogan in, arguably, Hogan’s best match since becoming associated with AEW and ROH, and some fun clashes with joshi talent Emi Sakura & Yuka Sakazaki, Athena’s title reign has been the most enjoyable aspect of ROH since the beginning of the weekly show on HonorClub; and that doesn’t seem to be changing any time soon.

Different Flavors

When Ring of Honor came into existence, adapting the Japanese Kings’ Road and Strong Style for an American audience was the unintended focus of so many who entered the honorable squared circle. But there are more figurative flavors of wrestling out there with international talent providing unique experiences for those who may not see something like quality lucha libre at their local independent show. ROH tried to adapt the growing want to present more than the norm usually associated with the promotion by forging relationships with Pro Wrestling NOAH, Dragon Gate, New Japan Pro Wrestling, and CMLL.

Tony Khan & crew have kept ROH’s match versatility spirit alive by mixing things up during both “ROH on HonorClub” and ROH’s recent pay-per-views. Almost on a weekly basis, there’s at least one lucha-based match featuring the likes of former ROH World champion Bandido’s little brother Gravity, “The King of Ropes” Metalik, bona fide standout Gringo Loco, and, arguably, the greatest luchador in the world today El Hijo del Vikingo. Appearances by Konosuke Takeshita, Yuka Sakazaki, and Los Ingobernables de Japon remind people that Strong Style still lives in ROH. There have been some crazy hardcore moments as well including the aforementioned Street Fight between Athena and Kiera Hogan for the Women’s World Championship, and a feud-ending Fight Without Honor between Action Andretti & Darius Martin and The Kingdom.

As with all of wrestling, there should be something for everyone and, if there’s one undeniable positive about this era of ROH, variety has been the name of the game every week.

Fresh Faces

One of the best things about Ring of Honor’s past was the company being a gateway for talent looking to make their mark on the wrestling world; even if said mark was small in comparison to global landscape professional wrestling encompasses. Samoa Joe, CM Punk, Bryan Danielson, Kevin Steen, Adam Cole, Roderick Strong, Hangman Page became household names after using their experience gained in ROH and moved on to “greener pastures”. Thankfully, this latest era of ROH has not only given unproven talent a chance to shine like they couldn’t on AEW’s “Dynamite” or “Rampage”, but also rejuvenated the careers of certain talent thought lost in the shuffle (see above regarding Athena).

Dozens of ROH debuts occurred during the first twenty-plus episodes of “ROH on HonorClub” with some discovering both a new spotlight and their abilities growing before everyone’s eyes. Skye Blue established herself as a talent on the cusp of turning into a must-see prospect during her rivalry with Athena over the Women’s World Championship. With Dante Martin suffering an unfortunate injury during “Supercard of Honor”, his brother Darius forged a successful tag team bond with Action Andretti that hasn’t necessarily been capitalized upon. The previously mentioned Gringo Loco proved to be a highlight reel for ROH programming, while fellow luchador Gravity improved leaps & bounds since debuting in ROH just a few months ago.

Though not unfamiliar in the eyes of AEW fans, wrestlers like Leyla Hirsch and Lee Moriarty witnessed their careers on an upswing since becoming solely associated with ROH. The Infantry of Shawn Dean & Carlie Bravo seem poised to breakthrough as top title contenders in the near future – same for their fellow soldier Trish Adora. The Renegade sisters continuously impress even if it’s by keeping things as simple as possible to emphasize how vicious & nasty they can be between the bells. No matter the era, ROH is still a destination for wrestlers who hope to take that next step toward wrestling stardom and believe they can change wrestling for the better.

Negatives

Devaluing the Recent Past

But there’s a nasty side on the figurative coin celebrating the newcomers of ROH: the previous guard presented poorly. While the stars from ROH’s “Golden Era” (2004-2008) get constant praise, those who held down ROH during a time when the company’s back was against the wall and fans were leaving to follow the Elite haven’t been treated with the utmost honor. Former ROH World Television & Tag Team champion Rhett Titus hasn’t won since the Tony Khan era began; same for his frequent tag partner and & fellow former ROH Tag & Television titleholder Tracy Williams.

Until recently, Josh Woods – who was one of the biggest stars in ROH’s Pure Division before Khan’s purchasing of ROH – was relegated to being a bit player in an uninspired faction that fails to garner any type of heat or genuine emotion from the crowd. Silas Young, Tony Deppen, Miranda Alize, LSG, Eli Isom, Cheeseburger were talents who not only helped entertain at a high level in ROH during the Covid-19 pandemic, but were breaking through the pack and had the makings of becoming synonymous with ROH in the near future.

Now, every named mentioned in the previous two paragraphs is seen as guaranteed win for the likes of Cole Karter, Tony Nese, or The Dark Order. But there are some bright spots in regards to ROH stars from the previous regime thriving. As noted, Josh Woods seems to be back on the upswing with a new attitude while reestablishing himself in the Pure Division. Dalton Castle & The Boys are second to none in both presentation & charisma that has AEW audiences begging for them to move up to the “big leagues” of AEW programming. Fellow former Television titleholder Shane Taylor got a shot at Samoa Joe & the TV Championship during AEW’s “All Out” (would’ve been nice to have the match on ROH programming to convince people to buy a subscription). Hopefully more names from ROH’s recent past will get a chance to attain a certain level of success worthy of their talent.

Roster in Flux

With the announcement that Ring of Honor would be another brand under the AEW umbrella, the belief was the roster being mostly exclusive to said brand similar to what NXT is to WWE. After a few weeks of “ROH on HonorClub”, the exchange of talent between ROH and AEW continued and even increased in certain instances with ROH champions making more appearances on “Dynamite” than on “HonorClub”. One of the most distressing parts about Ring of Honor’s core roster being shuffled between ROH and AEW programming is how they were portrayed before the Tony Khan era. Serpentico, The WorkHorsemen, Nick Comoroto were fixtures on AEW’s Youtube shows and when utilized for “Dynamite” or “Rampage” it was to lose in less-than-memorable fashion.

This nasty habit of former “AEW Dark”/now ROH talent coming to AEW programming and losing continues. Even ROH champions aren’t prone to losing if they are on an AEW card including the likes of ROH World Six-Man Tag Team champion Brian Cage, ROH Women’s World champion Athena, ROH World Television champion Samoa Joe, and even the ROH World champ himself, Claudio Castagnoli.

There are other roster members perfect for reestablishing ROH as a must-see product being moved from the brand to supplement AEW’s main shows without their void being filled in significant fashion – examples: The Kingdom, The Righteous, Big Bill, AR Fox, Willow Nightingale and even Mark Briscoe before his injury. Before established names & talent could and can help prepare the new breed of Honor, they disappear for weeks on end; only to return and win or lose a sole match before vanishing from ROH programming again. And then there are the potential stars of Honor that, too, disappear without warning after weeks of showcases including Willie Mack, Metalik, Blake Christian, and now The Iron Savages.

While the argument has been made that presenting ROH-associated wrestlers on AEW programming will encourage those not in the know to check out HonorClub, rarely, if ever, has a subsequent statement by the vocal minority supporting the idea of mixing rosters declared they invested their ten dollars a month to watch “ROH on HonorClub” after, say, Dalton Castle lost to Jay White on AEW’s “Collision”. If Tony Khan wants ROH to be taken seriously as a brand, he needs to sit down and decide who are the names strictly connected to ROH until their run in the brand has accomplished what is needed and ensure that this version of ROH has a solid foundation not just rooted in the past that fans still romanticize.

Poor Follow Through

For all that is great about the in-ring quality of any era in professional wrestling, the stories told leading to and following those epic encounters mean more than the action itself a majority of the time. Look no further than the treatment of who would become one of wrestling’s biggest stars ever: “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. WWE’s revisionist history has the former “Ringmaster” getting the rocket strapped to him after his infamous “Austin 3:16” promo. Reality is Austin did much of nothing after the 1996 King of the Ring & the aforementioned promo until Bret Hart’s return & request to wrestle his future nemesis five months later. If not for Bret, there’s a chance Austin’s potential as a mega-star would have never been reached.

On the opposite end of the spectrum compared to Austin are so many names including Dolph Ziggler after “Survivor Series” 2014, Monty Brown in TNA during 2005, Wardlow following his victory over MJF & subsequent TNT Championship victory in AEW just last year. Ring of Honor also witnessed the shortcomings of poor planning and a lacking follow-through regarding budding stars or potential main event talent not getting the spotlight at the right time. The All Night Express of Kenny King & Rhett Titus were as hot a duo as a tag team could be following their successful feud with The Briscoes culminating in them winning the third Ladder War during 2011. What came from The ANX overcoming the greatest tag team in ROH history was a non-televised, somewhat underwhelming Tag title match with them losing to Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team (Shelton Benjamin & Charlie Haas) before being shuffled down the card.

The Young Bucks – one of the most popular tandems in all the world by 2013 – were kept away from champion status in ROH for several years when fans were clamoring for them to be the faces of ROH’s Tag Division. Very few villains were as hated during 2005-2006 than Jimmy Rave; yet the “Crown Jewel” of The Embassy didn’t get a main event run worthy of his heat after back-to-back major feuds with CM Punk and AJ Styles. Donovan Dijak, Lio Rush, Punishment Martinez (WWE’s Damian Priest) seemed poised to carry ROH into the future, but weren’t given the stories or momentum to capitalize on their obvious upsides during a time when the company relied on the support of New Japan to garner interest instead of being the company preparing the wrestling world for its future. AJ Styles never won the ROH World Championship.

But what about this era of ROH that’s really only a year old? Sadly, several opportunities to elevate talent or create & conclude interesting stories have already been lost. Following Dante Martin’s leg injury at “Supercard of Honor”, Darius Martin joined forces with Action Andretti to continue Top Flight’s issues with The Kingdom. The feud between The Kingdom and Martin & Andretti culminated in a Fight Without Honor – originally a relaxed rules bout that could only end in pin fall, submission or knockout that has evolved into a stereotypical hardcore bout over the last decade-plus – with the former ROH World Tag Team champions of Mike Bennett & Matt Taven losing to the young upstarts.

What should’ve been a launching point to get Andretti & Martin into the Tag title picture was everything but as the victorious pair not only never got a Tag Team Championship opportunity even though they were on a winning streak, they were also completely forgotten about when a Four Corner Survival Tag Team title match was made at “Death Before Dishonor” two months following their star-making performance against The Kingdom. Now, Andretti & Martin are just another team shuffled into rather random trios alongside AR Fox or Lee Johnson where they’ve failed to win the Six-Man World Tag Team title on multiple occasions.

Ironically enough, one of those teams put in the “Death Before Dishonor” Tag title match was the eventual winners in Aussie Open of Kyle Fletcher & Mark Davis. Though they started their run in ROH as a winning duo, Aussie Open eventually became a one-man show due to Davis suffering an injury while Fletcher pressed on representing his team in singles action. Fletcher went undefeated as a singles wrestlers; producing fantastic matches in the process. Fletcher never got a singles title shot in any division or even an interview to explain he didn’t want singles gold as his goal is to become one-half of the ROH World Tag Team champions when Davis returned – the Board of Directors deeming Aussie Open worthy of a title opportunity due to Fletcher’s success to explain why a team that hadn’t been in ROH action for months were suddenly placed in a Tag Team Championship match on pay-per-view.

While it appears Dalton Castle is on the road to another Television title match with Samoa Joe, the journey to get there for one of ROH’s standout performers has been questionable including an unnecessary clean loss to The Dark Order in six-man action when “The Peacock” should be winning all the time to give no reason as to why Stokely Hathaway – who is figuratively in Samoa Joe’s pocket as of late – could deny Castle his title opportunity.

While Athena as a character and wrestler has been a bright spot in this era of ROH, the treatment of certain wrestlers beyond the champ herself has been questionable at best, disappointing at worst. Recently, Trish Adora – a wrestler that really came into her own shortly before and during the Covid-19 pandemic – seemed poised to become one of the faces of the division and someone hounding Athena. Instead, Trish’s winning ways were halted just when the fans started getting into what she’s offering with the person responsible for the loss not benefiting from the victory because that wrestler lost in her next match in short order (Lady Frost overcoming Adora, only for Kiera Hogan to practically squash Frost a week later).

Even someone as popular as Willow Nightingale suffered from unimpressive forethought and booking adaption. In the second episode of “ROH on HonorClub”, Nightingale failed to defeat Athena for the title in a fantastic match. The post-match beating that’s become synonymous with Athena’s appearances didn’t result in an angry Willow declaring she’ll get her rematch & revenge for the champ’s dishonorable actions. But Willow did go on a win streak with some bumps in the road including The Renegades attacking her after she defeated Robyn Renegade. What did Willow do after being attacked by Robyn & her sister? Nothing. No finding a tag partner to get some retribution. No promo stating she wanted a chance to fight Charlette Renegade since she wants to lay hands on Nightingale like Robyn did in unsuccessful fashion.

Nothing but Willow vanishing from ROH programming before competing in the Owen Hart Memorial Cup on AEW programming that earned her a ROH Women’s World Championship shot at “Death Before Dishonor”. Willow’s failed attempt to wrest the title from Athena during ROH’s latest pay-per-view provided one of the best matches of 2023, as well as a huge flaw in some of the logic seen in ROH as of late with Willow, once again, disappearing from Ring of Honor after the loss.

Following several weeks of making them a tag team to keep an eye on, the decision was made to break up the rather entertaining duo of Lee Moriarty and Big Bill with Bill suddenly teaming with Brian Cage on AEW programming even though Cage is one-third of the ROH World Six-Man Tag titleholders. Now Lee is, at least for a few weeks, teaming with The WorkHorsemen (Anthony Henry & JD Drake) even though the first episode featuring Lee following his breakup with Bill had the announcers emphasize Moriarty wanted to find success on his own.

Various faces have debuted or returned to ROH during “ROH on HonorClub” that appeared to be future fixtures, only to not return like Lance Archer, Konosuke Takeshita, and even former Women’s World champion Mercedes Martinez. Several stories were alluded to, but never occurred like determining the true king of television between ROH World Television champion Samoa Joe and New Japan Pro Wrestling World Television titleholder Zack Sabre Jr.

Former ROH World Tag Team champions Christopher Daniels & Matt Sydal rejoined forces to finally regain the championship, but don’t consistently team; let alone win together. The Dark Order’s turn into a more vicious version of themselves following their feud with The Righteous of Vincent & Dutch alongside Stu Grayson is seemingly at the same point it was before their Fight Without Honor at “Death Before Dishonor” with Stu continuously stalking his old allies to get them to embrace their blood lust even though they are more dishonorable than before with acts such as attacking opponents after defeating them.

For all the good seen in ROH during this era thus far and seemingly to come including the relationship between Athena and Billie Starkz, Samoa Joe’s TV title rivalry with Dalton Castle, and Claudio Castagnoli finally getting title challengers, there is a lot that needs to be done to capitalize on potential stars who could become synonymous with ROH and creating stories people will feel invested enough to both buy an HonorClub subscription and the few ROH pay-per-views produced during a calendar year.

Board of Directors/Title Management

These are two issues condensed into one because it appeared initially that the implementation of the Board of Directors would fix a problem with when titles would be defended, utilizing win-loss records as a way to determine top championship contenders, and the reduction of Proving Ground matches. Proving Ground matches were once a rare way to tease or even establish a future title contender in the various divisions by either having the champion lose in a non-title environment or the would-be championship challenger lasting the ten to fifteen minute time limit. In this Tony Khan era of ROH, Proving Ground bouts are a common, if not weekly occurrence with the outcome being the same every time as a champion hasn’t lost or gone the distance.

With the formation of ROH’s Board of Directors in early June featuring Khan, former ROH World champion Jerry Lynn, and manager extraordinaire Stokely Hathaway, the belief was the trio would bring some order to the various ROH title pictures while reducing the usage of Proving Ground encounters. Instead, the Board of Directors provided little to change or improve upon the inconsistencies especially in regards to top contenders.

During The Lucha Brothers’ reign as ROH World Tag Team champions, the Board didn’t ordain one team as title challengers until the “Death Before Dishonor” pay-per-view. Penta & Rey Fenix’s ROH World Tag Team Championship run saw their match at “Death Before Dishonor” as their one and only defense of the title on ROH programming after winning the belts over three months prior. Though his style and star power helps the Pure Division, champion Katsuyori Shibata makes both rare appearances and infrequently defends his Pure Championship with the titleholder himself usually being responsible for finding contenders (or, in the case of Josh Woods recently, a future challenger demanding a title shot).

The ROH World Six-Man Tag champs of Brian Cage, Toa Liona & Bishop Kaun fight a variety of trios teams with their manager Prince Nana going as far as to offer title opportunities to random teams if they are able to overcome The Gates of Agony (Kaun & Liona). A majority of the time, the Board of Directors are not involved in Prince Nana’s match-making process, but the bouts still happen.

Completely opposite of frequently defending champions like Athena and The Mogul Embassy is the World champ himself, Claudio Castagnoli. While the idea of the top champion rarely defending his title to make each defense seem grand is a long-used tactic in wrestling, ROH is a different animal. For a majority of ROH’s existence, the World champ defended both his belt and the unofficial title as the “best wrestler in the world” at almost every event.

Claudio, on the other hand, cut a promo explaining how no one has truly stepped up and proven themselves as worthy as a contender since his disposing of Eddie Kingston, Robbie Eagles, and PAC as would-be ROH World champions. Instead of the Board of Directors looking at the consistent wins of a competitor and deciding to either put them in a Proving Grounds bout or just simply make their next match for the World title, Castagnoli is calling the shots when, where, and potentially who is going to share a ring with the champ for all the marbles.

The most involved Board member has been Stokely Hathaway; cutting promos and, most importantly, trying to appease the ROH World Television champion Samoa Joe. Though Joe obviously doesn’t see Hathaway as anything more than a tool to keep his title, Hathaway & Joe’s interactions proved highly entertaining thus far; if not confusing mostly due to a lack of Lynn or Khan stepping up to reprimand “Big Stoke” from doing things like dishonorably creating a distraction for Joe to low blow Dalton Castle in the champ’s title defense at “Death Before Dishonor”.

The entire purpose of ROH’s Board of Directors stated by Tony Khan was to solve growing, though unexplained problems arising in ROH following “Supercard of Honor”. Unfortunately the aforementioned issues mostly connected to the World, Tag Team, Pure and Television title divisions continue to this day.

Quantity Over Quality

“ROH on HonorClub” almost immediately gained the stigma of being a re-branded version of AEW’s Youtube shows, “Dark” and “Dark Elevation”. The reason is because of how most “ROH on HonorClub” episodes are formatted with match quantities ranging from eight to nineteen bouts on any random episode. A majority of the time, these matches rarely reach the ten minute mark and may happen without any story connecting the competitors. Instead of adopting the format ROH TV used during the Sinclair Broadcast Group or even HDNet eras where an hour episode would feature upwards of four evenly places matches or letting one or two encounters get a majority of the program’s time.

One of the positives of ROH programming both on TV and during live events were pay-per-view quality matches featuring weeks of build and a culminate battle unlike anything else seen in other promotions with their weekly shows.

Similar to the usage of certain wrestlers from ROH’s recent past, this negative also has a positive take because there have been some well-promoted and, most importantly, fantastically concluded feuds and rivalries seen on “HonorClub” including the Fight Without Honor between Action Andretti & Darius Martin against The Kingdom, and Athena’s Street Fight with Kiera Hogan over “The Fallen Goddess’s” title. Sadly, those are mostly outliers than anything.

It appears Tony Khan believes more matches means more enjoyment, but the opposite occurs especially now that ROH is being taped alongside AEW’s “Collision”. Fans who stay for the entire taping are usually burned out by the end and rarely given a reason to get their energies back up as ROH’s biggest stars and champions are usually presented before and during “Collision” when the crowd is at its peak (and then there are those fans who leave to beat the traffic).

Embracing the idea of a sixty to ninety minute weekly show isn’t shortchanging the fans and could actually incentivize potential viewers to check out the product without the extensive time investment needed for every other weekly wrestling program.

Overall

Though this may come across as mostly negative with more cons than pros, the fact remains the core of what this version of ROH is has the potential of being so much greater than what’s been given mostly following “Supercard of Honor”. The talent is there. When provided time, a majority of the matches can be memorable. The potential for breakthrough stars and revitalized careers is obvious and has come into fruition in regards to the latter already. What this version & era of Ring of Honor needs is focus. What is the goal of Honor? Is it to be an off-shoot of what the AEW Youtube’s show were, or an actual third brand similar to the pre-pandemic NXT where it was seen not as the future of wrestling colliding on the WWE Network, but the present pushing for the main roster to top whatever NXT was doing each & every week.

For years, Ring of Honor’s moniker was “The Best Wrestling on the Planet.” While the company fell short of outdoing certain promotions in terms of in-ring quality during the late 2010s, they never lost the focus on being ahead of the curve while attempting to provide must-see action; building bridges with various promotions in the process to give fans the unbelievable at times. This era under Tony Khan’s watch could provide the same feeling ROH did during its various iterations if thought of as not just another block of wrestling to fill time, but the opportunity to present a brand the could match and even surpass what is seen on AEW’s weekly programming.

And there you have it. Show that love, or like, for The ROHbot Report on its Facebook page. Here’s to a great week for you and yours; and as always, thanks for reading.